1G4 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



was strictly confined to Tasmania and the islands in Bass's 

 Straits ; but I have lately seen specimens from Victoria and 

 New South Wales. 



The season of nidification occupies three or four months of 

 the year, during which two or more broods are reared. Eggs 

 may be found in September ; and on reference to my journal 

 I find that near George Town, on the 8th of January, I took 

 from a nest in the hole of a tree five fully- fledged young. 

 The nest in this instance was of a large size, and of a round 

 domed form like that of the Wren, with a small hole for an 

 entrance ; it was outwardly composed of grasses and warmly 

 lined with feathers. The eggs vary from three to five in 

 number, and are of a beautiful white, nine lines long by seven 

 lines in diameter. 



The holes selected for the nest are sometimes high up in 

 the loftiest trees, at others within a few feet of the ground. 

 The young birds have the tips of the spurious wing orange 

 instead of yellow ; and although the whole plumage possesses 

 the same character as that of the adults, the markings are 

 less brilliant and well-defined. The sexes ofl'er no observable 

 diff'erence in their colouring by which they can be distin- 

 guished. 



forehead and crown of the head black, the latter with a 

 stripe of white down the centre of each feather ; a stripe of 

 yellow commences at the base of the upper mandible, and 

 runs above the eye, where it is joined by a stripe of white, 

 which proceeds nearly to the occiput ; back of the neck and 

 back greyish olive-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts olive- 

 brown ; wings black, each of the primaries slightly tipped 

 with white, and the third externally edged with white ; the 

 secondaries edged with white and rufous, and the tips of the 

 spurious wing yellow ; tail blackish brown, each feather having 

 a transverse mark of white at the tip ; ear-coverts and cheeks 

 grey ; throat yellow, passing into lighter yellow on the flanks ; 

 centre of the abdomen white ; irides olive-brown ; bill black ; 

 feet brown. 



